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Apricot jam with apricot halves taste so much better than a clear apricot jam

When I was a child I loved making apricot jams with my mother. Every year we harvested lots of apricots of different kinds from our six apricot trees. Apricots from each tree had different taste, size and colour. We ate apricots fresh, we dried them, cooked jams and preserved in syrup.

Since the time I left my parents' home (15 years ago) I have been buying apricot jams very seldom mostly because many of them are just too sweet for me.

A few months ago I went to my local Waitrose and bought a jar of Waitrose Essential Apricot Jam. I did not really enjoy it because it tasted too sweet but also it contained inedible fiber, some up to 1cm long. When it was finished I decided to buy ASDA's own-brand apricot jam. I was tempted to try it because you could clearly see through the glass jar that there were lots of juicy bits. To my surprise this jam did not taste as sweet as the one from Waitrose even though they have equal amount of sugar. It has a much nicer taste and texture and I believe this is because of the big juicy bits, the apricot halves. Still, I wish it had less sugar as I love jams to be sweet-sour.

My husband and I have been enjoying this jam for two months already. He eats it with his morning bowl of Weetabix and I add it to my semolina. It goes really well with the semolina which I cook with the full-fat milk adding no sugar. And those juicy bits make my semolina very special! The apricot jam is also very nice on a peace of white toasted bread; or you could try this combination: bread-mascarpone-apricot jam. I also love eating vanilla ice-cream with a bit of the jam and it tastes so much better than the ice-cream on its own. The jam does not last long unfortunately. Every weekend we have to get a new jar.

ASDA Apricot jam (454g) costs £0.95 (20.9p per 100g). There is a promotion on sweet spreads till 26th November where you can buy 3 jars for £2.00. Not bad at all if you do your grocery shopping during the weekday.